The fear of every writer is that they might one day become Lawrence Miles.

Via a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential, the BBC will be announcing the Eleventh Doctor at 3:35PM GMT. The Cook’d & Bomb’d crowd is worried it could be a freak with a strangely-shaped head.

Congratulations! 2008 was the Year of Linux on the Desktop. All it took was severely torturing what “Linux on the Desktop” means.

Raw footage of Richard Dawkins’ interview with Derren Brown, discussing amongst other things the technique of cold reading and how it is abused by some to bestow upon themselves the glamour of supernatural abilities. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The Implied Truth about Stephen Conroy

The Dishonourable, Unqualified Stephen Conroy in a posting on a government website, which I refuse to call a blog you right-wing twit:

The Government understands that ISP-level filtering is not a ‘silver bullet’. We have always viewed ISP-level filtering as one part of a broader government initiative for protecting our children online.

Emphasis mine. The point keeps getting raised by those in favour of the proposed censorship of the Internet that it will “protect the children”. Under this guise, (probably) well-meaning groups who actually are concerned over child welfare are dragged in to support the scheme. They don’t understand the details of the problem beyond “There’s kiddie porn out there!” and they do not understand the supposed solution to the problem being discussed here, so all they are is clueless mouthpieces for the government. They let themselves down, and they let down the people they’re trying to protect.

The proposed filter does not protect children, and the government knows it. They’ve known since February. It is $44 million spent to shore up Labor’s votes in the next election.

Besides the over-reaching ignorance on display here, the truly infuriating thing about the flawed argument being put forth is that it (deliberately, of course) lumps opponents of the scheme in with advocates of child pornography. It’s the classic ploy of an asshole: “You don’t…. hate children… do you?” Stephen Conroy, if it weren’t already clear, is an asshole. He is trading on deliberate falsehoods and manipulation. These are perhaps his only qualifications for being our federal Communications Minister. It seems to be a tradition to have the most clueless twits elected to be appointed to that office.

Since our esteemed asshole of a minister seems so fond of weaselly words, lets see where this can go. Let us assume that this isn’t just a cynical ploy to grab the votes of uneducated, paranoid parents around the country. Let us assume that the scheme will actually protect children. No more will any child (or adult) in this country have to worry about seeing material the government finds “objectionable”. Huzzah. Glory day.

Except someone somewhere is seeing this content. Someone has to maintain the secret blacklist. Presumably the final authority on this blacklist will be the Communications minister. I think it all becomes clear here. It isn’t that the Communications Minister is against the proliferation of child pornography in Australia (on the Internet). It’s that he wants it all for himself.

Stephen Conroy loves kiddie porn. The evidence is clear. There is no other logical excuse for his plan. After all, if he actually hated the stuff he’d be doing something constructive, instead of instituting the greatest abridgment of free speech in Australia’s history.

via.